Amaury Keusters found space in the circle to score with the reverse stick after nine minutes as the Belgians dominated the opening exchanges.

England had a golden chance to level through a penalty stroke with seconds remaining in the half, but after a lengthy delay for a video referral, Lewers could only hit the bar.

The third quarter saw a succession of penalty corners as England pressed hard for the equaliser, but they were almost caught on the break as Keusters rattled the bar in a rare Belgian attack.

The breakthrough finally came when Lewers made space on the edge of the circle and cracked a fierce reverse-stick strike into the bottom corner to equalise, and England survived a couple of nervous moments as the clock ran down.

"It was nice to make up for the [penalty] miss and contribute to the team," said Belfast-born Lewers.

"It happens sometimes but fortunately it didn't have too many consequences. We started to regroup after half-time and we maybe shaded it in the final quarter."